A bout with a stubborn boat part.

As mentioned last time, I decided to see why the forward head was not working properly. Sunday was the day to get it done so I started at 0600. By noon, I already disassembled the thing three times and still no success getting it to do what it is supposed to do. Finally, I decided to see if there was an obstruction in the hoses. They were completely scaled. I needed to get to West Marine before 1600 and a fellow on the dock offered his car after they did some shopping. Darn nice to offer a stranger your car. Just after that, the Asst. Harbor Master tossed me the keys to his pickup and Bear and I went to do some major re-provisioning. West Marine has what I needed and the Publix grocery store filled out the list.

When we returned to the boat, the first fellow to offer his car came by and said he though I might have walked to the store and he went by there to see if I needed a ride. Wow, this is a different world with all the offers of cars, and folks from the marinas meeting us on dock to catch our lines. This marina has cable tv and pumpouts at every slip in addition to the normal stuff. By the time we got completely in the slip, all the dock lines were secure and the fellow from the marina was waiting to catch out power cord. That's service.

I finally got the problem solved along with another problem of similar type and it is already 1330 on the second day of the effort. Nothing, but nothing ever turns out to take the time originally estimated. Usually, other problems are found while fixing the original one. That's boating. It is not all fabulous sunsets but when they happen, it is a real treat. One fellow, the other day said that he caught the "green flash" (happens supposedly right at that moment when direct daylight gives way to twilight). Some cruisers never see it. We are looking forward to our first time.

Still still have not seen a manatee or a gator but we have seen some really nice water. We finally secured a reservation at the Galleon marina in Key West for about a week. That's the turning point north and into the Atlantic. We look forward to the time there and seeing the Salty Sailors and their sidekick Mango. We will be in KW starting 5/6/10 after an overnight sail from Marco Island. Hopefully, we can actually sail some. Until then, I continue to work on stuff I did not complete before leaving Texas.